Nature creates round objects all the time (stones in a river, a hedgehog in a ball,…), but the principle of an axle is not found as far as I know.

  • alpine_jim@piefed.social
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    12 hours ago

    No, that’s what I meant by not an axle.

    But, come to think of it, we can swing our arms round and round, more than 360°.

    • Kevin@programming.dev
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      5 hours ago

      I would argue that’s more due to the up-down and front-back limited rotations combining to form a circular mode, kinda like a Cartesian to Polar coordinate mapping

      • alpine_jim@piefed.social
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        5 hours ago

        that’s reasonable.

        bonus fun fact - the etymology is connected - “axle” comes from older words for “shoulder”, or “armpit”, which survives in some regional Englishes as “oxter” - the connection is apparently that you’d carry a person by putting their arms up and linking at the shoulders, much like an axle is how wheels carry a cart.

        https://www.etymonline.com/word/axle